


Only Time Prepares You

by GettheSalt



Series: Take Your Fandom to Work [5]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Gen, M/M, Take Your Fandom to Work Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7047817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GettheSalt/pseuds/GettheSalt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaguely cult-like behaviours, angry customers, Black Friday, thieves and betting pools. Sure, it's a place of work, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Time Prepares You

“Blueprint's yours this morning?”

Grant nodded in response to Phil's question, gathering up the morning reports from the printer in the SDR. “Yeah. Since Maria's away at the GM conference.”

The conference only happened once a year, thankfully. The GMs from every store would be put together to review the way the year was going, and how things were trending, as well as brag about how good their stores were performing. Grant was smug at the fact that Maria's biggest bragging point would undoubtedly be how good her store's mobile department was doing. Number one in the company for a straight six months? No one else could boast that.

“Oh, good, because I don't have anything in mind for what to talk about, except for, you know, the cheer at the end.”

Grant did his best not to roll his eyes while they left the SDR and headed for the floor. The Blueprint – the name they used for the morning meeting – would be held, as always, at the front by customer service. Trip and Alisha were already leaning against the desk, clearly waiting, and Audrey had done Grant a favour in pulling out the big wheeled Best Buy branded dry-erase board they used.

“You want to lead us in the cheer, then?”

“Sounds great.” Phil said with a nod, and, crossing his arms, turned to face the rest of the store and hollered, “Blueprint! Everybody up at customer service!”

Grant smiled, and nodded approvingly, watching as sales people, merchandisers, and Geek Squad agents all made their way up from getting their departments ready. “Thanks, Phil.”

“Anytime.”

The Blueprint wasn't anything special. Going over the past day's results, and then the monthly ones, was standard, before targeting the goals they had for that day. General discussion of things that had come up in Employee News was next, and then a discussion about the importance of watching for theft. Before long, they were wrapping up, with ten minutes left to go before open.

“Okay guys, bring it in for the cheer.” Grant said, rolling the morning reports in his hands, using the tube they made to point Phil's way. “Phil's got the cheer this morning.”

“We're gonna do 'Whose Best Buy'” Phil announced, to a chorus of groans. “Oh, come on, it's not _hard_.”

“Nah, mate, but don't you think it's vaguely cultlike behaviour?” James asked.

“I don't think that's how cults work.”

Leo, across the group from Grant, snorted. “Group chanting followed by a grunt? Not exactly how cults work, but getting pretty close. Think more... football team.”

“Can we just do the cheer?” Phil asked, sounding a little defeated. Perhaps he'd realized Leo had a point, and, looking at their team, realized they'd be in big trouble if this was a football team.

Grant was the first to put his fist in the circle, and the others followed his lead, until everyone had their fist in the center. Grant gave Phil a nod, and then willed his ears to withstand what was coming.

Bellowing, Phil started the cheer. “WHOSE BEST BUY?”

“MY BEST BUY.” the team answered in unison.

“I SAID WHOSE BEST BUY?”

“MY BEST BUY.”

“I SAID _WHOSE BEST BUY_?”

“ _MY BEST BUY!_ ”

The end of the cheer came with everyone pumping their fist in towards themselves and saying 'whoo!', low. The group broke part, Trip asking for help getting the window gates open, and Grant turned to Phil.

“You know, that is kind of cultlike behaviour.”

“Hey.” Phil said. “Just be glad I didn't take them outside to line up in front of the store and do the one with all the kneeslaps and clapping.”

 

~*~

 

Black Friday.

It was a day most retail workers learned to dread. It was early mornings – as early as 4AM – and late nights. It was knowing you could never be one hundred percent prepared for what the day would throw at you. It was being open to adaptation on everything from where you stood in the store, to when you decided to smile.

Black Friday, in short, was an exercise in how well a team could come together to be ready for anything. Especially when customers could sometimes be at their most mind-boggling. Their store had seen everything from yelling matches, to all out fights, to people using their children as placeholders for things they wanted to buy (“Just stand here and hold this laptop so no one else can buy it while daddy goes and buys a big screen TV, okay sweetheart?”)

It required a retail worker to be able to put on their retail mask and keep it on for as long as possible. That could get more difficult as the day went on.

Unless you were Antoine Triplett.

“This place is really hopping!”

Jemma blinked, and stared back at him. It was barely 8 in the morning, and the two of them had already been there for three hours, having been in before dawn to prep the store for what was to come. “How has your coffee not worn off yet?”

Trip laughed. “It was an extra large.”

“ _Still._ ”

Trip pointed beyond the boundaries of the customer service desk, towards the sales floor. It was almost impossible to pick out the blue shirts between the customers, but Jemma caught sight of a few of them. Lincoln was expertly handling what looked to be five people at once. James was running between people with a laptop under his arm, bee-lining for the till where, she presumed, his customer waited. Idaho was wheeling out a 65” 4K television while Mike followed behind with the much heavier stand on a dolly. The line-ups in mobile made next to no sense, but Jemma could see Kara, Sunil and Kebo all working away at activations, while Grant moved through the department, helping people with accessories. Though she couldn't see Bobbi, or anyone else from Home Solutions, she knew that they, with the amazing deals they had on televisions for the sale, were swamped.

“I'm up here, and I'm not out there.” Trip said, simply. “I can keep smiling because I know that I'm just handling logistics up here.”

“Good point.” Jemma agreed, as Alisha's voice came over the radio. “But maybe you could risk it to run over to cash? Alisha needs a password.”

Looking across the sea of people that filled the relatively short gap between the returns desk and checkout, Trip sighed, smile still in place. “I love Black Friday.”

 

~*~

 

Working in customer service required a very specialized skill set.

You couldn't be quick to anger.

And you definitely shouldn't take things personally.

You needed to be able to listen to what a person was saying, whether they were angry or not.

And doing your best to understand was generally more than just a good idea.

Problem solving on the spot became an ability you couldn't live without.

And independence was key.

Probably the most useful tool when dealing with angry people, however, Hannah had found, was a spine. The ability to stand your ground and make things work for everyone involved, without crumbling and giving away the farm. It was a hard skill to master, and she had yet to perfect it, particularly when going up against a customer who made _not_ taking things personally very difficult.

“You're a goddamn idiot.”

“Sir--”

“-How do you even have a job here? Don't you know you're supposed to provide customer _service_?”

“Sir, I really--”

“' _Sir_ ' Listen to you. Get me a mana--”

“--All right, that's enough.”

Jemma had come out of nowhere, as far as Hannah was concerned. She wasn't a big woman, not by any means, but the tone she was using filled up the air like she was twice as tall as she really was. The customer across from Hannah seemed to shrink in her wake, and Hannah couldn't deny amusement from that.

“Are you a manager?”

“Yes.” Jemma confirmed, and before the man had the chance to continue, she spoke over him. “No. You don't get to talk now. I'm talking. You've done quite enough of that. What's the issue, Hannah?”

“The gentleman here wanted to return this broken iPod.” Hannah said, holding it up for Jemma's inspection. “It was bought in June of last year.”

“And it's physically damaged.” Jemma said, firmly, before she took the iPod and gently pushed it across the desk towards the customer. “Unfortunately, sir, our return policy is 30 days, and we do not take back physically damaged product. If you'd like, I can introduce you to our Geek Squad, and they might be able to repair that cracked screen for $100, plus taxes.” She smiled, and Hannah bit down on the inside of her lip. “Otherwise, I'm going to have to ask you to have a wonderful day, and leave the building, as you've done quite enough to insult my employees.”

The man stared at her, dumbfounded, for a second, before he gathered up the iPod and shuffled off towards the exit. If he'd been a dog, he would have had his tail between his legs.

“How do you do that?” Hannah asked once he was far enough away. “I said the same things, and he wouldn't let me talk.”

“Sometimes they need to hear it in a manager's voice.” Jemma said, smiling genuinely, and gently, now. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I'm okay.” Hannah said, hesitating. “Can I borrow your voice? I feel like it would make my job a lot easier.”

Jemma laughed. “How about I teach you the tone you're looking for?”

Hannah smiled. “That'll help.”

 

~*~

 

“What are you watching?”

Like any other retail business, of course the store had cameras, designed to watch and document the daily going-ons of the building. They could be used for everything from verifying when people arrived and left, to catching thieves, to locating someone in the building on a busy day when trying to find them by foot was just too difficult.

They were not generally supposed to be used to check up on employee's mishaps. Calderon taking a tumble, or Kebo walking into a wall wasn't supposed to be played on loop. The intended purpose of the camera system made it so that it simply wasn't meant for that.

That didn't stop the staff from, sometimes, trying to see it.

Like now, when Izzy walked into the SDR and found her senior and full timer attempting to work the system so that they could watch _something_. She suspected she knew what, though it had been a few months since the infamous install bay incident. They should have seen this coming when Melinda had explained, yesterday, just what that was when Lance had made an offhand comment about getting written up for doing stupid things.

Both Mike and Idaho jumped at the sound of her voice and turned. “Uhhhh.”

Izzy raised an eyebrow, waiting. The store was closed, and the sales staff were busy making sure their departments were powered down for the night. It wasn't like she was in a rush to get answers out of these two.

“We...”

“We wanted to see what happened with Lance in the install bay.” Mike admitted, seeming almost guilty. And right, he should. “But we can't figure out the cameras.”

Izzy rolled her eyes. “I don't think that's something either of you need to see, right now.” She said, moving forward to make sure the live feed was back to LIVE and not stuck on some long passed date.

As she did, she caught sight of something on one of the home theatre cameras, and squinted, leaning forward. It couldn't be what she thought, and yet.

“Holy shit, boys, we've got a live one.”

“What?” Idaho asked, leaning forward, watching while she brought that camera feed to the front, enlarging the image. On the screen, a man dressed entirely in dark colours was carefully moving large boxes from a bottom shelf, and climbing in himself, pulling the boxes back into place around him. “Oh shit!”

Mike shook his head. “Idiot. He'd get caught as soon as he moved when we left. The motion sensors would go off.”

“Yes.” Izzy agreed. It was rare that stores had people try to hide themselves inside while the close was going on, so they could sneak out and steal things. It still happened, though “But those are high-end stereo receivers he's stashing himself near, and the fire exit is just around the corner.”

Turning around, she headed for the office door, signaling to Phil that there was something going on. Mike and Idaho were right behind her, her back-up in getting this guy. Mike already had his phone out, ready to call in the cops.

“Never a dull moment, huh?”

“Nope.” Idaho agreed.

Izzy nodded. “Never.”

 

~*~

 

Being part of the Geek Squad made you an elite member of the tech community. At least, when it came to big box retail. The Geek Squad was a well-known name, it was a group that people trusted. When people saw the white, black and orange branded cars out on the road, they tended to think 'there's someone who helps with computer issues'.

Those cars – geekmobiles – lined up in the parking lot of the store did a lot to show the presence of the Geek Squad. It wasn't just the little bugs, but also vans, and trucks. It was a fleet of tech experts, in their branded vehicles, that people could count on. Any one of those vehicles brought to mind tech savvy.

At least, in most people.

“You know, we can still get in trouble for this.”

Grant smirked, and Leo felt a tingle go down his spine. “I'm a manager, and _technically_ , we're on break.”

“In my Geekmobile.” Leo pointed out, but he didn't move himself from where he was, a bit cramped but happily planted in Grant's lap in the back seat.

The thing was, they had clashed at the beginning. Leo was too flippant, too easy-going. Sure, he was brilliant, but he wasn't serious enough for Grant's liking. Clearly, Grant himself hadn't known much about what was to his liking. They'd spent _months_ bickering in ways that anyone with eyes could see was flirting, until Leo had invited Grant out for drinks after a Saturday night close.

Things had just escalated from there. The first kiss outside the bar had shattered all their resolve to keep their relationship strictly professional. That first kiss had led to more impromptu dates, so many Leo had lost count, until they could safely say they were dating. To each other, anyway. Within the walls of the store, it was something they still tried to hide.

After all, there was a betting pool out on them. The longer people wondered, the better.

“We're still off the clock.” Grant reminded him, his deft fingers undoing the buttons on Leo's shirt. Leo didn't stop him, instead just nodding in agreement with his point, and pulling him up by the lapels of his Best Buy Mobile shirt, kissing him soundly.

They were grown men, and they should know better, but Leo had been away for the last week. The Precinct Chiefs training conference had ensured that the only communication they'd had, until Leo had driven the geekmobile to the store that day, had been over the phone. Leo wasn't blaming Grant for asking him to join him on lunch, and then ending up shoving his toolbox off the seat so they would fool around a little before they had to go back.

“Missed you,” Grant breathed when they pulled away. “Only thing that keeps me sane, some days.”

“I am?” Leo asked, grinning. “Wow. You know people would lose their _shit_ if they heard you say that. Bet a lot of them think I'm the reason you lose your cool some days.”

“Because we're damn good actors.” Grant replied, grinning and leaning up for another kiss. Leo laughed, softly, leaning down to meet him.

_Tap tap_.  
They broke apart, comically fast, Leo almost falling into the front of the car through the space between the seats.

So much for their secret love affair.

Kara was grinning wide outside the window, like the cat that got the cream, looking at the two of them.

Grant groaned.

Leo sighed. “Guess she's gonna win the betting pool.”

Kara opened the door and ducked her head, looking in at the two of them. None of them said anything for a few second, before she couldn't seem to hold it back anymore.

“So. This is cozy?”

“Please tell me you didn't come out here so you could win the betting pool.”

Kara gave Grant a non-committal shrug. “I came out here to tell you to put your shirt back on. Turns out yours isn't off, but Leo's is getting there. Anyway, the Apple rep's here and he wanted to give you some info about the new phone launch next week.”

Looking at Grant, Leo could see the agitation in the set of his jaw.

“I'm on break.”

“I know.”

Kara's smile made her intentions very obvious. Leo tugged his shirt closed, buttoning it up while he spoke. “How much are you going to win for confirming we're an item?”

“Let's just say it's a lot more than Daisy won for Joey and Mack getting together.” Kara answered, before she stood up and shut the car door. They watched her walk away for a minute, before Grant spoke.

“This? Is getting continued later on.”

Leo smiled. “Your place, or mine?”

 


End file.
